<<< What I don’t get is why in addition to the endless options from mega to ultra to whatever style packs, you don’t just organize options around genre. >>>

The problem isn't genre. It's songs. According to an article by Stacey Conradt at the Mental Floss web site, "Just because The Beatles did a bang-up job on one song doesn't mean that Joan Baez or Elvis Presley couldn't do the same tune justice in their own unique way." And, "Yesterday has been covered more than 2,200 times, with Joan Baez, Liberace, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, En Vogue and Boyz II Men among the many (many) artists to put their own spin on the song."

So, as Bob Segar sings in Against the Wind, "which one to leave in? Which one to leave out?" Also, for instance, what if you want to put your own spin on a song?

You're asking an impossible and unfair task of PGMusic. Matt's provided a good PGMusic derived solution but I suggest you can improve on their 'best guess' of your personal preferences better than they can. Dan and Jim's suggestions on using the new Stylepicker hopefully improve on the results you've received doing your own searches but again, you can improve on their results.

Honestly, if you take Matt's suggestion and purchase the basic upgrade and purchase the Jazz Pak, that combo package would contain dozens of Styles you'd likely never select to use. It would likely contain Real instruments you'd never select. You could send me $250 and I could create a custom Jazz Pak for you from whatever BIAB version and add-on's you have. That combo package would also contain dozens of Styles you'd likely never select to use. It would also contain Real instruments you'd never select.

_BANFOLK RealStyle is listed to be FOLK genre. It's also listed to be compatible with the genres Bluegrass, Folk, Lite Pop, Ballad and Country Classic and Country. A particular instrument of the style is an acoustic bass in a Bossa style. That same bass is also found in other searches. The other searches yield results for Bossa, Jazz, Jazz Ballad, Lite Pop, Smooth Jazz and Latin. Additional searches would I'm sure find more genres. Your point about searching and searches is well taken.

"But I play straight jazz. That’s what I need in a backing track. And there is a community out there of players with a similar need. I suppose doing so is not cost effective as there are so many other sorts of musicians you cater too. But I would think others players in other genres could use such focused content. I guess you guys are packaging and parsing BIAB in a way that is most profitable. It just doesn’t work for a subset of us out here."

Again, that is an impossible and unfair task to burden PGMusic or me with. Though I'd gratefully spend the $250 Nonrefundable fee to create you a custom list of styles... wink

All of the specific style content your "community of players with a similar need" have is there. PGMusic's profitability is of no consequence to your issue. They can't solve your subset personal preferences if they wanted to, for profit or free. They can't totally satisfy your subset of musicians or any one else's. What they can do and have done is supply the tools necessary for you to solve your own problem.

You say; "Not everything can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." BIAB's too complex, too comprehensive lists of Styles and instruments can be changed. So, if you're willing to face your problem and put in the work, you can easily create your own custom Style list and RealTrack instrument list. Create it. Save it. Use it and share it with the "community out there with a similar need" to what your need is.

Once you have your lists to your liking, any future upgrades and new PaKs, new releases of RealTracks can be auditioned and the ones that are appropriate to you personal Subset Specific Genre, can be added and all the remainder ignored. Whatever Version of BIAB you have, or purchase, they all have a finite number of Styles and RealTracks. Both The Stylepicker and the RealTrack Picker have user defined Favorite Folders. Audition each and every style in your version of BIAB and place your personal picks of appropriate styles that fit your personal subset style of 'straight Jazz' and use that folder for all of your BIAB projects and songs simply ignoring the remainder of Styles. Repeat the process for RealTrack instruments. For all practical purposes, that's what you're asking PGMusic to do for you and the end result is a custom set of styles and instruments that fit your personal needs and wishes.

I can almost guarantee the list you comprise will be much greater and diverse than you imagine. But while the music of your subset is specific, the nature of your issue with BIAB isn't. These forums are full of posts about what BIAB can't do and should do. I can tell of the dozens of times I've posted solutions to these type issues where BIAB can solve the issue or can do their desired task. If there is a reply posted at all, it's usually a rejection the poster is not looking for a 'workaround' (the solution almost never is, but rather, an unused feature of how it's done in BIAB) or they demand a preprogrammed 'button' to push like some DAW (which BIAB is not) has.

If you happen to be the exception, I'll be more than glad to assist you any way I can to help you create a personal favorites folder (at no cost wink or nonrefundable fee) from the tools and techniques available to help parse the task of auditioning down to manageable numbers and time.




Edit: / This process and techniques will also work for Dzjang's need. /




Last edited by Charlie Fogle; 10/19/19 03:18 AM.
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.